Rare albino porcupine spotted outside Fredericton

Ron and Kim DeSilva captured video of a rare albino porcupine in their Upper Kingsclear, N.B., neighbourhood last week.

A New Brunswick couple captured video of a rare, pale creature outside Fredericton last week.

Ron and Kim DeSilva sent CTV Atlantic a video of an albino porcupine crossing a road in their Upper Kingsclear, N.B., neighbourhood.

The video has been shared with Andrew Hebda, the former curator of zoology at the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History, and he was impressed.

He said he’s only heard of a couple other cases in the last five years, both out west.

“They tend to make easy prey for other predators (having lost their camouflage) so tend not to make it to adulthood... so rarely encountered in the wild,” Hebda wrote in an email to CTV Atlantic.

He also estimates the rodent is “a youngster” based on the base of its tail and gait.

Albino cases are rare in mammals; one in 10,000 births result in the condition.

This isn’t the first time the DeSilvas captured an incredible animal video.

Last Thanksgiving they shared a video of two wild turkeys “knocking” on their basement window.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Bruce Frisko

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